California’s Attorney General Kamala Harris will play a role in a CPUC investigation into whether ratepayers should continue paying for the San Onofre nuclear power plant, which has been offline for a year.

The San Onofre nuclear power plant has been offline for a year, due to faulty steam generators, but ratepayers are still paying more than $50 million a month for the non existent power. The CPUC is considering whether ratepayers should be reimbursed.

State Attorney General Kamala Harris has stepped into the fray. Lynda Gledhill of Harris’ office said the AG has not taken a position on the issue.

“We have filed to become a party in the investigation” Gledhill said,“ and we want to monitor going forward, to make sure everything happens in the public’s best interest. “

Under California law, ratepayers should not be charged for a power source that is offline for more than nine months. But the operator, Southern California Edison, argues rates should not be changed until the next general rate change in 2015.

In 2011, Harris called for tougher fines in a CPUC case involving Pacific Gas and Electric, after a gas line explosion in San Bruno.

I predict that time will show that a nuclear accident (not a nuclear incident) was narrowly avoided at SanO on January 31, 2012 only because of shear luck, due to the timing of the discovery of Edison’s poorly in-house designed replacement steam generators (RSG). Had that Unit 3 tube been just a tiny bit stronger and not leaked when it did; then with both Unit 2 & 3 back online, if a main steam line break or something similar occurred, we now know that it would have probably resulted in the complete venting of the core coolant within minutes, and we all know what that means…

SanO is now a 1.5 Billion Dollar RED FLAG that illustrates how easy NRC regulations can be gamed (without ANY enforcement penalties) which allow Utilities/Operators to make changes that have enormous implications to safety and the Public Health, with little to N☢ actual oversight, until it is to late!

The two basic problems at Fukushima, Japan were that:(1) TEPCO’s regulator pushed too much paper instead of being “hands on”.(2) TEPCO had total control over what data the public had access to, which prevented any real oversight by the public.

The USA cannot afford a Trillion Dollar Eco-Disaster like Fukushima, that is why the NRC needs to “overhaul” how it enforces its current regulations and develop new regulations ASAP to patch all the regulatory holes that now exist!

The first step is to really open up the entire NRC process to the public, so that true public oversight can take place, instead of the flawed system we now have, as SanO illustrates all too well! As it is now, the public does not have enough access to NRC documents, reports and/or data which prevents all knowledgable people from providing true input into the decision making process.

Or said another way, we cannot afford to have a Trillion Dollar Eco-Disaster in the USA for any reason and that includes GREED…

What we don’t know can indeed hurt US, especially if it is radioactive!

I couldn't believe CA Edison was formerly aware of the problem with faulty components in that plant that got problematic with tube wear and steam generator now. Certainly those ratepayers must be disbursed the amounts they pre paid but not utilizing any services by San Onofre. I have serious doubt with that smelly fish as I commented other sites, since I was a regular to S.C pier prior to greater controversy in this nuke plant problem. I just can't prove it more scientifically..